The bane of Nigeria

Why is Nigeria, a country so blessed, so backwards?
This question has been so used, it has become a cliché but the answer is as elusive as ever.

Nigeria is blessed with a lot of good things, raw material, fertile soul, intellectuals, you name it she has it.

Nigerians excel wherever they are and in whatever they do- in the medical field, engineering, trade and commerce, banking, even scam.

So why are we still where we are today?
In my opinion, the problem of Nigeria is Nigerians. Rather than look within, see and develop the good in us, we look for acceptance from others. We do this as a nation and as individuals, as leaders and as masses.

It starts with us, given what is due to who it is due.

We should give jobs to those who merit it rather than "who know man", we shouldn't increase the prices of Nigerian products because their foreign alternatives are far more expensive.
Let's encourage " made in Nigerian products ", there are some very good ones, we can start from there.

Cattle rearers now engage police officers in shoot outs. How is this even happening?

Police officers should stop looking for bribes and actually put their backs into their jobs which is " to protect lives and properties " because they seem to have forgotten that part. Their motto is now "guilty until you pay".

Until importation of refined crude oil products can be stopped, the prices should be regulated(I don't mean a group of people pocketing money). Attention should be paid to getting the refineries working.

Agberos (transport touts) should be swept off our roads. In fact I don't want to get started with this set of people, God help us here.

Civil servants who once behind their desks fancy themselves mini-deities, carry on their personal businesses to the detriment of the jobs they are paid for(in recent times though- jobs they are hardly paid for).

It is from one story of a nigerian customer being asked to stand up in a banking hall for a white customer to sit, to whites bashing a car and going scot free while the owners of the car that was bashed are detained, to black employees being outrightly bullied and underpayed by their white employers in Nigeria.

Don't get me wrong, I am not racist and I'm not trying to be but fair play matters in all things. We should demand fairness to ourselves and foreign visitors and expect it. Until we start acting in ways deserving of respect ourselves, we cannot get the respect due us.

I could go on and on but I believe everyone needs to look at themselves and appreciate who and what we are, to help Nigeria be a better place.